Friday, November 9, 2007

Intelligence.

I just came from Katelyn's parent teacher conference. Yes, they do them for preschool. I mainly wanted to sign up for one just to make sure she's doing ok with all that's going on at home. She goes to a strict private Catholic school. The teachers are wonderful but they mean business. Anyway - the conference was good.

She started with, "I'm going to be brutally honest..."

Insert MAJOR freak out on my part. I was expecting the worst.

Then she smiled and said, "She is such a joy to have in class and if she wasn't here, the class would fall apart!"

She expressed to me her concern that she is going to be bored in school because she is so far ahead of the other kids. Her writing is past Kindergarten level. She can read lots of words. She knows the days of the week and announces what the date is every day to the class before the teacher gets a chance to. LOL.

She's very social and her classmates all fight over who gets to play with her. LMAO. NOT the same at home.

There is so much more...but I don't have time to write it all out.

Of course, I am incredibly proud that my 4 year old is such a big girl. But at the same time, I'm scared for her. Being super smart isn't always easy in school. I don't want her to be bored. I don't want her to hate school. She reminds me so much of my brother and he absolutely hate school after Kindergarten. He was bored to tears because he was just so far beyond his classmates.

3 comments:

You may want to think about Montessori school. Instead or following a set curriculum that says we will do x for y hours regardless Montessori takes a more flexible approach that keeps exactly what you are worried about from happening.

The flip side that many educators despise the lake of structure and I am sure an argument can be made that discipline in a good thing too, even if you are bored. It is something to think about though.

I was like your brother K through high school but once I got into adult education I thrived! I loved it. If I won the lottery I would move in next to a university and go to college for the rest of my life. Since I would be rich though I would never do homework or take finals though! :)

Honestly, I can see where the worry comes in - it's far more difficult to keep an excellerated child interested than it is to help a child who is behind. There are a lot of programs for children who struggle, but most schools don't have much for those who are above where they need to be (except possibly skipping grades).

I'm going to disagree with the montessori assessment, though it depends on the school and how they employ the philosophy - I think Catholic schools are excellent because the usually supply not only a high curriculum (often it's far above the local public school's) but most have a good community, meaning that your child will feel part of the school family and that close knit environment will be of real value to you and your children if you're branching into single parenthood... the only downside to Catholic is that they don't have the funds for the extras, but they're usually small enough to be able to work one on one with your child.

Best of luck and I'm glad she's having such a positive introduction to school.

I am...
a soon-to-be single mother of 2;
working my ass off to take care of my babies;
loud & obnoxious at times;
happy go lucky;
bitchy;
opinionated;
loving & caring;
trying to make it on my own...
This is my life. Love me or hate me. I don't really give a shit. ;)

I am...
a soon-to-be single mother of 2;
working my ass off to take care of my babies;
loud & obnoxious at times;
happy go lucky;
bitchy;
opinionated;
loving & caring;
trying to make it on my own...
This is my life. Love me or hate me. I don't really give a shit. ;)